A video posted on YouTube Monday of a woman committing suicide in the Beirut neighborhood of Ramlet el-Bayda has been picked up by news organizations across the country, including Al-Jadeed TV, MTV, LBCI, OTV, An-Nahar newspaper and the website, Lebanon Debate.

The woman, identified as Amne Ismael, can be seen sitting on the ledge of an 8th floor apartment building over the weekend while her husband bizarrely videotapes the entire scene from his phone. Lebanese blogger Luna Sawfan first posted the video on YouTube, saying she received the footage from a friend who lives in the neighborhood.

The video is not newsworthy and should never been distributed as such by the country's major news organizations. Yes, the respective organization always warns viewers about the disturbing content, but just because a tragic death is videotaped, does not make it newsworthy. What about the victim's family? Could you imagine how many people are going to witness this poor woman's last moments of life? I can think of nothing more disrespectful than to blast it across the major news networks web and social media channels.

It's still unclear why Ismael's husband taped the incident. One popular assumption we've read is that he wanted to save himself the trouble of explaining how is wife died to police. He was released from custody on Sunday.

Post edit:

Since this blog was published, LBCI has since decided to refrain from sharing the video.